From Camden, NJ….thoughts…

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Camden evening

Here I am in bed with my laptop having a Camden evening that doesn’t make the news. I’m thinking how happy I am that my second eye surgery (cataract surgeries, left and right) seems to be as successful as the first. I do have another appointment to make the final judgment, but so far, I can only say WOW! You may not believe that a city girl/old lady like me would have been nervous, but I was. Vision is important–I couldn’t help but worry what happened if something went wrong? How about an earthquake during the surgery?

It’s raining outside and the wind is making my window rattle. This evening photo wasn’t taken today–I did not dare to drive only twenty-four hours after surgery, but I took the photo a few days ago at 36th and River Road in Cramer Hill. A tractor trailer, maybe coming from Petty’s Island, was turning slowly and I had a chance to snap that beautiful Camden sky.

Along with my good news about my eyes, I have another little piece of joy–a new book came in today’s mail. I thought that I ordered it on Kindle, but, I accidentally ordered it in paperback. That’s fine. I love a REAL book–paper pages–ahh. However, it saves space to have books on Kindle. But, I am looking through this book and am enjoying this happy mistake.

Why We Write About Ourselves, Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature, edited by Meredith Maran, will be the book that I’ll read this week. I skimmed the pieces and I found honest answers about why people write memoirs. Many favorite writers of mine (Anne Lamott, James McBride, Pat Conroy, Edwidge Danicat, Dani Shapiro) appear here. I see other authors that I will read and perhaps I’ll jump into their memoirs, too.

How about you? Have you ever thought about writing your memoir? If so, I bet you’d enjoy this book. By the way, I don’t know the editor and I found this book by chance on Amazon. No kickbacks.

I’m going to rest my eye–poor dear–it’s been through surgery and it’s on a regime of eyedrops now. I’ll read more tomorrow. I’ll close my eyes and think about this piece of advice from Anne Lamott: “Everything that has happened to you is all yours. Just write it. You can worry about the legal issues and the next bad holiday dinner later. Tell the story that’s in you to tell.”